Maryland-Virginia Tech Postgame Quotes

Maryland Athletics

3-4-2014

Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon

Opening Statement:

“That was a good night for us. Virginia Tech’s played everybody really tough here lately, except for at Duke. I think Duke beat them by 18. I thought in the first half that Virginia Tech made some shots. Our transition defense wasn’t very good and our rebounding wasn’t very good and they made us pay for those. At the start of the second half, Dez [Wells] made the play of the game. He got the steal and a three-point play. Our energy level was different. I thought our defense was terrific. Whether they missed shots or not, our team defense was terrific in the second half. We missed a lot of shots or it could have been a different score. Our execution against the zone was good for the most part. Our patience was better. Eighteen assists and five turnovers was a good night for us. We needed it.”

On shot selection:

“It’s a fine line. We have a lot of good shooters that aren’t making shots. The shots I don’t like are the quick ones. Or a pass is thrown as your feet, and you bobble it and still shoot it anyway. I thought we shot four or five 3’s with 20 to 25 seconds still on the shot clock. Those were too early. We have a thing that we say to let the post touch it before we shoot it, and we probably had five or six of those where it didn’t really happen. For the most part our zone offense was really good. We got a lot of really good looks and that’s what you ask for.”

On the end of the first half and beginning of the second half:

“They were both big. Obviously Nick [Faust]’s play [at the end of the first half] was big because the energy in the building wasn’t great and our energy wasn’t great either. I thought Dez’s play set the tone [for the second half].”

On Shaq Cleare’s play:

“He’s fresh. Shaq stays in shape and he works hard. That was a big time dunk. He had some nice rebounds and he played smarter defensively as the [second] half went on. Shaq was good.”

On Jake Layman’s confidence:

“I told them, the only one that can give you confidence is yourselves. What Jake did tonight is he defended better. The shots, I know Jake can make, especially against the zone. It’s just defending better, and I thought he was much better defensively.”

Junior Guard Dez Wells

On the momentum changing dunks to bookend the halves:

“We finished out the half really good. Shaq [Cleare] had a really good game for us, Jake [Layman] played well; we all played pretty well tonight. It’s a big win for us going into our next game, so we just want to enjoy this win for tonight and tomorrow we are going to recover and do what we have to do to get our bodies and minds right for the next game.”

On the quick second-half start:

“It doesn’t matter how you start a game, it matters how you finish. I felt we finished strong and we have good momentum going into our next game. That’s where our focus is.”

On Shaq’s play:

“He had to step up tonight, and that’s what I told him. He stepped up and played big minutes tonight. Roddy [Peters] played well too. Roddy is getting a lot better and so is Damonte [Dodd]. I’m just happy to see our guys get out there on the court and do what they know how to do. We played hard. It’s a big step for us as a team.”

Sophomore Forward Jake Layman

On not starting:

“Starting to me does not really matter. Coming off the bench is not a problem for me. Coach told me before the game, so it wasn’t a big deal. There were a couple times this year when I didn’t start.”

On Dez wells 3-pointer to start the second half:

“It got us going. In the first half, we had no energy. That first play got everybody going.”

On defensive play in second half:

“We played with more determination in the second half. In the first half, we were kind of just relaxing and going with it. I guess you can say we were not really trying hard. In the second half, he got on us and we came out strong.”

On bouncing back from close losses:

“It feels pretty good to get a big win. We know we have a big game coming up. We knew we needed this one too, so it’s good to get a win before the one coming up on Sunday.”

Virginia Tech Head Coach James Johnson

On losing the first-half lead and Maryland’s five early second-half threes:

“I thought that the first play we turned it over and led to their run-out basket, I thought we let that affect us on the defensive end….but I didn’t think our effort was there. We didn’t get out to the shooters. We didn’t cover enough ground. We didn’t cover as much ground as we covered in the first half. And I think that was just due to when you have a young team and the way things have been going tough for us. [We’re] not very confident. And on that one play, I thought we let that carry over to our defense.

On Maryland’s three-point shooting:

“I think a couple of them were tough looks. I know Joey [van Zegeren] ran out. [Jake] Layman, 6-10, and he just knocked it down over him. I thought a couple of them were tough. I thought their 3’s for the most part were tough, but we gave up a couple layups and dunks on backdoors where he hit the high post and then hit the guy cutting to the basket.”

On the first four minutes of the second half:

“The first four minutes of the second half really hurt us. Turning the basketball over and we went four minutes without scoring. And we’re just not built, we’re just a team that’s just not built coming back from a deficit like that.”

On losing C.J. Barksdale in the game:

“We were shorthanded to begin with and especially after he made a play, he made a nice long drive to the basket, made the and-1 and I thought he was off to a big night and then he knocked a free throw down and he tried to go up one time up and down the floor and couldn’t do it and couldn’t go back. And that hurt us because that’s another guy that can score the basketball for us and it took another scorer off the floor.”

On the team’s 18 points in the second half:

“Starting with the first play of the game, I thought they got out on our guards a little bit more. Put a little bit more pressure on us. Again, that first play of the second half, that hurt us. I thought they did a good job with that. We got the ball down inside, we missed a couple chippies, we turned the basketball over, too many turnovers.”

On Jarell Eddie and three-point shooting:

“I think he got a little bit fatigued there. He came off a screen one time and he’s wide open and he should have knocked it down, but [Nick] Faust and [Dez] Wells those guys were chasing him pretty hard all night.”

Senior forward Jarell Eddie

On Maryland’s second half shooting:

“They were getting open shots and knocking them down.”

On C.J. Barksdale missing the second half with an injury:

“Losing C.J. is always tough. He is a scoring threat and a dominant rebounder down low. He can knock down shots and drive the ball. Losing C.J. definitely hurt.”

Redshirt sophomore Joey Van Zegeren:

On what changed in the second half:

“We knew they were going to come out with more energy and pressure us on defense. We didn’t come out well enough. We threw some balls away, which got them in transition.”

On Maryland’s second half defense:

“They denied the ball a little bit more. They put pressure on us and we turned the ball over. We have to take care of the ball better.”